July 07, 2005
Judith Miller Martyred
Date: Thu, 7 Jul 2005
From: Jason Aaron Osgood
Subject: Prelude
To: Judith Miller
Hi Judith Miller-
Perhaps your treatment at the hands of Fitzgerald is something that I should disagree with on principle. However. Given your plentiful lies, your enthusiastic participation in the instigation of an illegal war which lead to the deaths and injury of 100s of thousands of innocents, and your amazing lack of remorse, self-recrimination, or change of behavior, well... All I can say is your incarceration couldn't have happened to a nicer person.
Enjoy your time in jail. We look forward to your tell-all book afterwards.
Cheers, Jason Aaron Osgood / Seattle WA
From: Jason Aaron Osgood
Subject: Prelude
To: Judith Miller
Hi Judith Miller-
Perhaps your treatment at the hands of Fitzgerald is something that I should disagree with on principle. However. Given your plentiful lies, your enthusiastic participation in the instigation of an illegal war which lead to the deaths and injury of 100s of thousands of innocents, and your amazing lack of remorse, self-recrimination, or change of behavior, well... All I can say is your incarceration couldn't have happened to a nicer person.
Enjoy your time in jail. We look forward to your tell-all book afterwards.
Cheers, Jason Aaron Osgood / Seattle WA
July 03, 2005
Wade Madsen and Dancers: Four Elements
We saw Wade Madsen's most recent installment Friday night. My very good friend Theodora Fogarty was in the show. It was great to see her having so much fun. It's always a treat when you get to see friends doing what they love most.
The show had a dance each for Air, Earth, Water, and Fire. Each dance was it's own thing. The whole production was very ambitious, involving 18 dancers, years of planning, and about 10 months of rehearsal. The costumes were great. The lighting was interesting. The dancing was fantastic.
I usually have a hard time connecting with modern dance. Being a strict reductionist, I have to work to extend the empathy needed to appreciate movement for the sake of movement.
I thoroughly enjoyed Four Elements. Perhaps it was because I could follow the themes.
Air was my favorite. The flowing movements were really engaging. What I imagined to be the sun being honored by the winds was just great. Everything about it was beautiful. Although there was a huge amount of activity, it was easy to just kind of let it flow. (I usually feel like I'm missing something if there's too much going on.)
I also enjoyed earth. Many of the movements were really clever. I wondered how much was improvised versus strictly choreographed. Maybe degress of both. I like how the choreography gave each dancer some time doing solos, duets, and triplets. It really made the whole effort feel collaborative.
I had the hardest time connecting with water. The music was kind of industrial and techno. The movements were occassionally abrupt. Afterwards, Juli shared her impression of forces working against each other. Like waves and tides. I wish I had made that leap myself during the performance.
Fire was really fun. Kind of like the dancers including us in a party they decided to hold just for kicks. It's amazing how dancing done well can also be humorous. For instance, there was a sequence riffing on drinking coffee. The faces were priceless.
Wade Madsen started with an introduction. Not quite a monologue. I really enjoy hearing him speak.
Years ago, he related a story about dancing in a turkey outfit for a commercial. I won't get the story right. But hopefully some of who Wade is gets through my telling.
Wade has the flu. He couldn't hear anything through the head peice. So the director's trying to share some feedback on the turkey movements. Wade stops him and, trying to keep it simple, asks "Faster or slower? Bigger or smaller?" Director says gives an answer and work resumes. So Wade's doing the turkey dance, director yells "Cut!" Only Wade can't hear him and keeps on going. Then he hears something like "Hey! Who's watching the turkey!?"
Ending that monologue, Wade reflects on that experience, his life, and the meaning of stuff, wondering "Hey! Who's watching the turkey!?"
To me, that question captures the whole of it (life).
I dunno. Maybe you had to be there.
The show had a dance each for Air, Earth, Water, and Fire. Each dance was it's own thing. The whole production was very ambitious, involving 18 dancers, years of planning, and about 10 months of rehearsal. The costumes were great. The lighting was interesting. The dancing was fantastic.
I usually have a hard time connecting with modern dance. Being a strict reductionist, I have to work to extend the empathy needed to appreciate movement for the sake of movement.
I thoroughly enjoyed Four Elements. Perhaps it was because I could follow the themes.
Air was my favorite. The flowing movements were really engaging. What I imagined to be the sun being honored by the winds was just great. Everything about it was beautiful. Although there was a huge amount of activity, it was easy to just kind of let it flow. (I usually feel like I'm missing something if there's too much going on.)
I also enjoyed earth. Many of the movements were really clever. I wondered how much was improvised versus strictly choreographed. Maybe degress of both. I like how the choreography gave each dancer some time doing solos, duets, and triplets. It really made the whole effort feel collaborative.
I had the hardest time connecting with water. The music was kind of industrial and techno. The movements were occassionally abrupt. Afterwards, Juli shared her impression of forces working against each other. Like waves and tides. I wish I had made that leap myself during the performance.
Fire was really fun. Kind of like the dancers including us in a party they decided to hold just for kicks. It's amazing how dancing done well can also be humorous. For instance, there was a sequence riffing on drinking coffee. The faces were priceless.
Wade Madsen started with an introduction. Not quite a monologue. I really enjoy hearing him speak.
Years ago, he related a story about dancing in a turkey outfit for a commercial. I won't get the story right. But hopefully some of who Wade is gets through my telling.
Wade has the flu. He couldn't hear anything through the head peice. So the director's trying to share some feedback on the turkey movements. Wade stops him and, trying to keep it simple, asks "Faster or slower? Bigger or smaller?" Director says gives an answer and work resumes. So Wade's doing the turkey dance, director yells "Cut!" Only Wade can't hear him and keeps on going. Then he hears something like "Hey! Who's watching the turkey!?"
Ending that monologue, Wade reflects on that experience, his life, and the meaning of stuff, wondering "Hey! Who's watching the turkey!?"
To me, that question captures the whole of it (life).
I dunno. Maybe you had to be there.
Enron: The Smart Guys in the Room
We saw the documentary Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room last night. (Three dollars at The Crest, such a deal!)
What can be said that hasn't been said already? In brief, see this film.
I was pleased to actually learn quite a bit from this film. I had known that Enron had gamed the California electricity energy crisis. What I didn't know is that they actually caused the whole thing. Republican Gov Pete Wilson pushes through industry authored "deregulation". Enron causes an energy crisis by purposefully limiting supply (shutting down plants). California is bilked for 10s of billions of dollars. People and institutions are hurt, killed, and robbed blind. Democratic Gov Gray Davis pleads for the feds (FERC, Bush) to do their jobs. No can do, let the market decide. Davis gets the blame. Cronies pay for a recall (coup d'etat) and install their ciminally incompetent buddy Schwartznegger (who secretly met with Ken Lay prior). The bad guys get off.
Of course, there's a lot more to the story. But I'm still dumbfounded that the guys who caused the problem are rewarded and the guys who tried to prevent and then fix the problem take the fall.
Same as it ever was. No good deed goes unpunished.
While processing the movie afterwards, it struck me that President Cheney is running the country just like Enron ran their business. Lie to everyone. Tar your political rivals. Argue that critics just don't get the new reality. Run up massive debts. Enrich yourself and your friends. So what if I few undesirables get killed? Pin the blame on someone else. Leave a huge mess for someone else to clean up.
Personal responsibility, right? And if you're caught, plead ignorance. "No one could have imagined terrorists were planning to attack with airplanes" says Condi. "Maybe Fastow was doing stuff. How would I have known?" says Skilling. Never admit a mistake.
One aspect that kind of sucks is that serious energy market reform, that is to say engineering more efficient markets to better allocate resources, is now a non-starter. Our society needs to become more efficient. Now no one will trust the efforts to do so.
Thanks Enron!
It's incredible how many people were hurt by Enron. It's incredible how many people were part of the conspiracy to defraud investors as well as customers. It's incredible how little has changed since.
What can be said that hasn't been said already? In brief, see this film.
I was pleased to actually learn quite a bit from this film. I had known that Enron had gamed the California electricity energy crisis. What I didn't know is that they actually caused the whole thing. Republican Gov Pete Wilson pushes through industry authored "deregulation". Enron causes an energy crisis by purposefully limiting supply (shutting down plants). California is bilked for 10s of billions of dollars. People and institutions are hurt, killed, and robbed blind. Democratic Gov Gray Davis pleads for the feds (FERC, Bush) to do their jobs. No can do, let the market decide. Davis gets the blame. Cronies pay for a recall (coup d'etat) and install their ciminally incompetent buddy Schwartznegger (who secretly met with Ken Lay prior). The bad guys get off.
Of course, there's a lot more to the story. But I'm still dumbfounded that the guys who caused the problem are rewarded and the guys who tried to prevent and then fix the problem take the fall.
Same as it ever was. No good deed goes unpunished.
While processing the movie afterwards, it struck me that President Cheney is running the country just like Enron ran their business. Lie to everyone. Tar your political rivals. Argue that critics just don't get the new reality. Run up massive debts. Enrich yourself and your friends. So what if I few undesirables get killed? Pin the blame on someone else. Leave a huge mess for someone else to clean up.
Personal responsibility, right? And if you're caught, plead ignorance. "No one could have imagined terrorists were planning to attack with airplanes" says Condi. "Maybe Fastow was doing stuff. How would I have known?" says Skilling. Never admit a mistake.
One aspect that kind of sucks is that serious energy market reform, that is to say engineering more efficient markets to better allocate resources, is now a non-starter. Our society needs to become more efficient. Now no one will trust the efforts to do so.
Thanks Enron!
It's incredible how many people were hurt by Enron. It's incredible how many people were part of the conspiracy to defraud investors as well as customers. It's incredible how little has changed since.
Pharmacy Shopping Tips
I've learned two quick tips for savings on medications.
The first, and obvious one, tip is to buy generics. Note that your pharmacy may not stock the generic alternatives. Having dealt with Fred Meyer and Costco for years, I was doing comparison shopping (getting Fred Meyers to honor Costco's price), both online and in person. I had no idea one of my medications (Ultravate) has had a generic alternative (halobetasol propionate) for at least a few years now. In quantity, the price difference is $155 (approx. $235 vs $180).
The trick is to search using Froogle. Somehow, Froogle is smart enough to include generic results in searches for brandname drugs.
The second tip is to explore the medication sizes. One of my prescriptions is 500mg twice daily. At the time, I noticed the 250mg variation was less expensive than the 500mg tablets, saving about $1.50 per day. For some reason, pharmacists can't add (250mg + 250mg = 500mg), so you'll need your doctor to change your prescription.
Being responsible for my own medications, I had been toying with the idea of buying from Canadian pharmacies. I'm also very motivated to stop giving Fred Meyer (owned by Kroger) my money.
I ended up using drugstore.com. I keep checking and they have the best American prices. The modest savings from buying Canadian hasn't overcome my skepticism.
I'm definitely not buying from brick and mortar operations in the future. Fred Meyers was ripping me off. Retail pharmacists are just pill pushing clerks in white coats. Sometimes, they'll helpfully read the label to you. And now that they've gotten all moral on us, I'm only too happy to see these bozos lose their jobs.
I don't think drugstore.com is the final answer. They do too much, just like Amazon. I just want drugs. Don't hassle me with sales on soap, pit stick, and toothpaste. I'm still going to buy the incidentals at my local grocer. It's also likely, just like Amazon, drugstore.com is "touching" the goods too many times. Ship the drugs directly from the manufacturer. Warehousing, cross shipping, and reboxing all this stuff is inefficient. Shorten the supply chain and make the manufacturer floor their own damned inventory. Then drugstore.com becomes the e-commerce site (e.g. catalogs, transaction processing, filing prescriptions, handling insurance, etc.).
The first, and obvious one, tip is to buy generics. Note that your pharmacy may not stock the generic alternatives. Having dealt with Fred Meyer and Costco for years, I was doing comparison shopping (getting Fred Meyers to honor Costco's price), both online and in person. I had no idea one of my medications (Ultravate) has had a generic alternative (halobetasol propionate) for at least a few years now. In quantity, the price difference is $155 (approx. $235 vs $180).
The trick is to search using Froogle. Somehow, Froogle is smart enough to include generic results in searches for brandname drugs.
The second tip is to explore the medication sizes. One of my prescriptions is 500mg twice daily. At the time, I noticed the 250mg variation was less expensive than the 500mg tablets, saving about $1.50 per day. For some reason, pharmacists can't add (250mg + 250mg = 500mg), so you'll need your doctor to change your prescription.
Being responsible for my own medications, I had been toying with the idea of buying from Canadian pharmacies. I'm also very motivated to stop giving Fred Meyer (owned by Kroger) my money.
I ended up using drugstore.com. I keep checking and they have the best American prices. The modest savings from buying Canadian hasn't overcome my skepticism.
I'm definitely not buying from brick and mortar operations in the future. Fred Meyers was ripping me off. Retail pharmacists are just pill pushing clerks in white coats. Sometimes, they'll helpfully read the label to you. And now that they've gotten all moral on us, I'm only too happy to see these bozos lose their jobs.
I don't think drugstore.com is the final answer. They do too much, just like Amazon. I just want drugs. Don't hassle me with sales on soap, pit stick, and toothpaste. I'm still going to buy the incidentals at my local grocer. It's also likely, just like Amazon, drugstore.com is "touching" the goods too many times. Ship the drugs directly from the manufacturer. Warehousing, cross shipping, and reboxing all this stuff is inefficient. Shorten the supply chain and make the manufacturer floor their own damned inventory. Then drugstore.com becomes the e-commerce site (e.g. catalogs, transaction processing, filing prescriptions, handling insurance, etc.).
